


Copper

by LiterallyThePresident



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Blood, Minor Violence, Resurrection, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 07:20:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14255826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiterallyThePresident/pseuds/LiterallyThePresident
Summary: They lost Leo once. Nico won’t let them lose him again.





	Copper

**Author's Note:**

> I just kinda wrote this because I love the temporary character death trope and I was inspired by a scene in Pandora Hearts

Nico rushed to the place he’d last seen Leo, terror and desperation driving him. His death sense was shrieking, Leo’s life force fading, fear like he’d never known before urging him faster. He reached his destination in record time, and the scene before him nearly made him retch. The floor was stained red, a steadily growing pool spreading over the floor. A pair of bloodstained scissors lay innocently a few feet away from the door, as if someone had carelessly tossed them aside.

 

Leo Valdez was dead, his cooling body lying prone in the center of the coppery pool, throat torn messily open and blood still seeping lazily from the wound. His skin was pallid, eyes empty, his features frozen in an expression of surprise and fear.

 

Nico fell to his knees, uncaring of the pain of impact on the hard floor.

 

“No...” he whispered, heart pounding as he searched desperately for any sign of life, “No. This can’t...” But it was. He felt it.Leo was dead. Leo was _dead_. Their comic relief, their repair boy that reinforced their bonds, made them laugh, smiled in the face of danger.

 

Not again. _Not again._

 

They’d already lost him once before. He’d already had to sit through a funeral, watch his friends break down in their own ways, see them try to live their lives with a ragged, Leo-shaped hole in their hearts. He couldn’t let them go through that again. He wouldn’t. Damn the man, but he’d wormed his way into Nico’s heart too.

 

“No.” his fists clenched, “No. I won’t allow this.” He knelt in the dark puddle, laying his hands flat on the coppery floor and casting his shadows wide, searching for the soul with the spark of orange.

 

“I’m gonna get you back.” Nico promised the still body as he sank into the haze of power, “I’m gonna-“

 

“Nico?” a voice came from the stairwell beyond the door, “Nico, are you up there?” Piper. _Fuck_. She couldn’t have picked a worse time. Nico couldn’t shield her from the grisly sight, if he moved now he risked losing Leo forever.

 

“Don’t.” he called weakly, unable to put any more force into it with half of his being in the Underworld, “Don’t come in. Don’t see.” Either Piper didn’t hear him, or she didn’t listen. Nico would have cursed out loud if he weren’t so focused on getting their repair boy back. He heard her footsteps come to a halt behind him, heard

 

“Leo...?” Piper’s voice was soft, disbelieving, “What...?”

 

“Come on, you bastard.” Nico muttered, unable to comfort her right now, “Where are you? Where _are you?_ ” He heard more than saw Piper fall to her knees. He heard her unsteady breaths quicken, saw her shaking hands out of the corner of his eye hovering over Leo’s bloodied chest, unable to make herself touch the ravaged form lest it all become real. Her agonized scream set Nico’s teeth on edge, nearly making him lose his tenuous grip on the Underworld. He couldn’t see what she was doing, but the unchecked _anguish_ in her scream filled him with horror, a hopelessness that nearly made him give in to despair. He wondered if she’d lost control of her charmspeak.

 

It only took a few moments after that for Jason to come rushing in, face pale and sword drawn, “Piper! What’s-“ he cut off with a strangled sound when he saw the cause of her scream, stopping short in the doorway. Nico gritted his teeth, the world going dark around him.

 

“Oh my-“ Jason gasped, dropping the sword and bringing a hand to his mouth as though he may vomit, “L-Leo-!”

 

“Heal him!” Nico snapped, voice tight, “For Hades’ sake, heal his throat! He needs a body that works!”

 

“But he’s-“ Jason couldn’t take his eyes off Leo’s face, “He’s-“

 

“ _Fuck_ , Jason, just do as I say!” Nico snapped, sweat soaking through his shirt, “Shove the ambrosia down his throat if you have to, just fix that cut!” Jason looked sick, but he did as Nico commanded, whimpering as his hands brushed the ragged edges of the wound. Piper had gone silent, sitting in a tight ball at Leo’s side, eyes wide and faraway. Nico didn’t want to imagine the level of therapy she’d need after this, even if he succeeded. Leo was her best friend. Her best friend in the entire world. Losing him would be like Nico losing Bianca. Unbearable.

 

Leo’s soul was a flighty thing, fighting against Nico tooth and nail, but the son of Hades was determined. He wasn’t letting Leo Valdez slip away a second time. He wasn’t letting him go.

 

“Got you!” he snarled triumphantly, snagging the soul by the skin of his fingertips. He hauled it upwards towards him, feeling as though he were dragging an anvil through mud. It was all he could do to contain the soul in the cradle of his hold, if Leo was a stubborn man when he was alive, he was ten times worse as a shade. It took nearly everything Nico had to drag him into the light. Outside the underworld, the soul only vaguely resembled their friend. Nico could just make out hazy eyes and a wisp of a hand. Piper whimpered at the sight.

 

“Nico?” Jason asked with a shaking voice, hands stained crimson. It looked like he was wearing red gloves. Nico’s stomach did an unpleasant flip.

 

“Hold hi-Oh, no you don’t.” Nico snarled as the soul tried to dissipate, “You’re not done yet! You aren’t allowed to die yet!” It took supreme effort to shove Leo’s soul back into his body. Nico felt the edge of his vision beginning to tunnel. Will was gonna kill him for this, “Just a little...” Leo’s soul fought, but Nico’s will was stronger. He sank reluctantly back into his body, and Nico forced himself not to collapse. Leo didn’t move. There was no jolt, no spark of life, no sharp intake of breath. He remained cold and unmoving, a corpse.

 

“I can’t...” Nico could barely hold himself up, “He needs...” Jason jolted out of whatever grieved daze he’d slipped into, leaping into action. His hands found Leo’s chest and started compressions, his face a stone mask of determination as Nico faded in and out.

 

“You are not leaving us.” he growled, pumping steadily, heedless of the slick sounds of the blood under his fingers, “Not again. Look what you’ve done to Piper. To Nico. And me. Get your scrawny ass back here, Leo! I refuse to carry your body to the others! I absolutely refuse!” Jason was relentless, not letting up even for a second. Leo’s chest looked so fragile under his strong hands, so small and breakable. Nico heard a sickening crack, but it was nothing a little ambrosia couldn’t fix if they got him back. _When_ , Nico reprimanded himself, _when_ they got him back.

 

“Leo.” Piper whimpered, making a concentrated effort to get it together enough to inject some charmspeak into her wrecked voice, “Come on, Leo. Come back. Come back. You’re my best friend. My _best friend_ , you hear me? I need you. We all need you.” Thirty seconds had passed. Nico felt exhaustion dragging at his bones as he began to lose hope.

 

“No.” Jason muttered heatedly, doubling his efforts, “ _No_.”

 

“Think about Harley!” Piper cried, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks, “You’re his favorite brother! He needs you! And Calypso too, and Hazel! Festus, Leo, you’re his entire _world_! Come back, Leo, come back, _please_!” She poured every inch of power she had into that one word, and Leo suddenly gasped, blood bubbling past his lips in a gush as his brown eyes filled with life once again. The look of surprised horror remained, however, and intensified as he lurched forward to retch, red staining the floor further as he scrabbled clumsily for his throat with a pathetic little cry. Piper threw herself at him, dragging him to her chest like a drowning sailor clutching a life preserver. Nico supposed he was grateful that her hug pinned his hands and prevented him from reopening anything, but his own surging relief was temporarily eclipsing everything else, even his exhaustion.

 

“You’re okay.” Piper gasped for breath, clutching Leo close in an embrace that looked painful, completely uncaring of the blood that soaked her front, “Oh gods. Oh gods, you’re okay. You’re alive. Nico saved you. He saved you.”

 

“Nico...” Leo’s voice was hoarse, eyes wide and body trembling, “He... what? How...?” Jason enveloped them both in a hug, finally allowing his own tears to break as his arms wrapped securely around them.

 

“Holy shit.” he gasped, burying his face into Leo’s hair, “Oh gods. Leo, don’t ever do that again. We lost you once, don’t you dare-“

 

“Didn’t do it on purpose...” Leo managed weakly, voice hoarse and raspy, “They caught me by surprise.” Nico watched them with a sort of relieved longing, the three of them made a picture. He made to pass out, fatigue claiming him, but something latched onto his collar. Jason dragged him into the hug, and Nico couldn’t have fought it if he wanted to. He managed to slip his arms loosely around them, taking comfort in the physical evidence that Leo was really here, that he’d succeeded.

 

“Thank you.” Jason whispered fiercely, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We’ll be indebted to you for life” Nico wanted to argue, to say that that wasn’t necessary, but he didn’t have the strength. He wasn’t sure how long they sat there, clinging to each other in a congealing puddle of red, Piper petting Leo’s hair with shaking hands while he tried to pull his thoughts together, but eventually they had to get up. Nico’s legs refused to work, his body utterly drained, but Jason just hefted him up into his arms. Piper clung to Leo when they left that horrible place, supporting his weight and helping him along with soft words of encouragement. Jason carried Nico out, and the moment they set camp they were all back in the reassuring pile.

 

“I’m sorry.” Leo murmured to them as they all settled around him, touching him in any way they could, “I’m sorry.”

 

“Don’t be.” Jason told him, squeezing him gently, “It wasn’t your fault.”

 

“Nico-“

 

“-wasn’t going to let you die.” Nico cut him off sternly, voice raspy from where his head lay in Leo’s lap, “Just... don’t tell Will.”

 

Gods above, they were going to need so much therapy.

**Author's Note:**

> It’s bleh but whatever


End file.
